The present invention relates in general to devices for decoding and/or programming complex or sequential information.
The present invention relates in particular to devices of this type which includes a matrix constituted by electrically conductive lines and columns which are insulated from each other and which cross each other at predetermined locations where they can be selectively connected to each other so as to achieve in this way a number of selected connections between the lines and columns at the locations where they cross each other.
In a well known manner, the connection between a line and column where they cross each other is achieved by providing a simple short circuit between the line and column at a selected location where they cross each other. However, a connection including a passive element such as a resistor or a non-return diode permits an electrical connection of a line toward a column while assuring a disconnection in the opposite direction from the column toward the line.
In this way for a given distribution of connections between the lines and columns, there will be for all of the input signals supplied to the lines a linear combination of output signals available at the columns which are connected to the lines. If several input signals are simultaneously applied to different lines, the result is a complex output signal formed by decoding in a manner determined by the positions of the connecting plugs or the like which can be selectively manipulated for providing predetermined connections between the lines and columns. It is to be noted that this output signal cannot in any case include more elements than the number of columns of the matrix. This fact is also true even in the case where there is a decoding of input signals which are successively applied to different lines, for example by exciting the latter sequentially or cyclically with a suitable timed distribution of the input signals in order to provide a program for a complex task, such as an operating cycle for a transfer machine or for illuminating and operating an establishment such as a warehouse, department store, or the like.
While there is of course a freedom to select connections to be provided at locations where the lines and columns cross each other, so as to modify in this way the particular type of decoding, matrix devices of the above type, which are presently known, can only provide for each simple or complex input signal a single and unique linear combination of output signals the number of which can at most equal the number of columns of the matrix. In other words, such known devices can only provide a univocal decoding, even in the case where several similar matrices are stacked in order to provide for handling and/or supply of signals made up of more elements than those consisting only of lines and columns, respectively.